'What will be the tipping point?' Legal Services Corp. chair asks in appeal to ABA for funding help
The ABA’s support has been indispensable over the years of the Legal Services Corporation’s existence, John G. Levi told the House of Delegates on Tuesday—but that support is still desperately needed.
Levi, chair of LSC’s Board of Directors, spoke to the House of Delegates about the organization’s continuing funding challenges. The need for legal aid is stronger than ever, he said. In 1974, when the LSC was founded, 12 percent of Americans had incomes low enough to qualify for help. Today, he said, that percentage is 22.
Yet LSC’s congressional funding is substantially lower in inflation-adjusted dollars, he said—and the budget passed this year by the House of Representatives would cut it further. He appealed for lawyers’ help.
“Ultimately, the country’s confidence in the fairness of the justice system is very much in the balance,” said Levi, a partner in Sidley Austin’s Chicago office. “When a large enough group of folks feel justice is not accessible to them, what will be the tipping point?”
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